“The average cost of one hour per day browsing the internet for every 1000 employees is £6,000,000 per annum or 12.5% of the company wage bill.”

www.websense.com 2004

Employee surveillance and monitoring is a sensitive area. Advances in technology have brought benefits of increased access to information via e-mail and the internet, but at what cost to business? Employees now expect varying degrees of access to such services whilst at work. A policy setting out what use of the employer’s internet, e-mail and mobile telephones is essential to set the boundaries.

This course addresses the balance between the rights of employers and those of employees, considering questions such as how to respond when you discover that an employee has distributed pornographic images on your e-mail system and to what extent you can monitor what employees are doing on the organisation’s premises and IT systems. The course assumes that delegates already have a basic understanding of discrimination law and how to conduct disciplinary proceedings. The briefing is complemented by practical exercises.

• Data protection issues
• Processing sensitive data, such as medical information
• Individual rights of access
• Computer and email policies
• Employee monitoring and surveillance
• The Human Rights Act
• The implications of the Freedom of Information Act

• Awareness of the key principles of data protection
• Knowledge of the interaction between the employees’ right of privacy and the employer’s right to monitor activity
• Understanding of how to respond when issues relating to surveillance and monitoring arise in the workplace

HR professionals, Directors, Managers and IT administration managers